Vin Diesel’s Instagram account has confirmed that there will be three more films made to wrap up the hugely successful Fast & Furious franchise. He also revealed the release dates for the next three Fast & Furious films. Fast 8 will be released April 14, 2017. The next, as yet untitled, Fast & Furious will follow on April 19,2019, and the last movie will drop April 2, 2021.
The new movies will make Universal’s second most successful franchise a staggering 10 films long. As Vin Diesel put it on his social media announcement, that’s ten films over two decades for one saga. According to the announcement, Fast 8 will be shot as the first installment of a trilogy that will bring the series to a conclusion with the 10th film. The last installment of the series, 2015’s Furious 7, was a huge hit for Universal, earning $1.516 billion worldwide.
Straight Outta Compton director F. Gary Gray is directing Fast 8 with the full cast, including Vin Diesel, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, and Jason Statham. Neil Moritz is producing with Vin Diesel. Paul Walker’s character, Brian O’Connor, was given a moving on-screen sendoff at the end of “Furious 7,” after his death during filming. The movie was completed with the help of Walker’s brothers and some CGI magic.
The Fast & Furious franchise, which started back in 2001, will be the first non-horror franchise in modern cinematic history to combine more than eight explicitly connected tales into one long cinematic saga. Even among horror franchises, the only one made ten theatrical installments is Friday the 13th. Saw closed out at seven films and Nightmare on Elm Street officially made eight along with the original Halloween franchise. The Harry Potter films also closed out at eight, but the newly revived Star Wars franchise is currently scheduled for nine.
Vin Diesel has promised the tenth movie will be the last one in the series. He wrote on his Facebook page, “Universal has been so good to me and so trusting of the vision … they have been like family. I promised the studio I would deliver one last Trilogy to end the story.” However, no one has ruled out spin-offs and prequels being made in the future.
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